They’re Bad – A Bullpen Story

Chad Qualls has allowed 80% of his inherited runners to score in 2012. Photo (AP)

The Phillies bullpen has been incredibly frustrating and their stats back up how bad they have been. I’ll keep this short and sweet as sometimes the most simple numbers say the most:

ERA – 4.95, 30 out of 30 in MLB

FIP – 4.39, 29 out of 30 in MLB

xFIP – 4.54, 29 out of 30 in MLB

K/9 IP – 6.81, 28 out of 30 in MLB

BB/9 IP – 4.33, 24 out of 30 in MLB

LOB% – 66.%, 29 out of 30 in MLB

IP – 72.2, 29 out of 30 in MLB

What does this mean? The Phillies bullpen is at or near the bottom of every major and minor standard and advanced stat.The Phils’ pen is allowing inherited runners to score, they’re walking people, and they’re doing this all in the second to last amount of innings pitched in the Majors, making the Phillies bullpen an effective powder keg of explosive awfulness, ready to blow games at will.

Where do the Phillies go from here? The only immediate solution could be replace one of the faltering bullpen members with Jake Diekman. Diekman, 25, has pitched 14.1 innings and is striking out batters at an outstanding 13.8 per 9 IP against only 3 walks. But after that, the solutions aren’t that simple.

Do you feel that it has reached the point where there is no where to go but up, that the Phils have had an unfortunate stretch of bad luck, or that this bullpen trend continue?